A Faith Unshaken but Unsettled

Catholics react to Pope Benedict's resignation.

By

Peggy Noonan

Updated Feb. 17, 2013 10:41 a.m. ET

It is disquieting, the resignation of the pope. "We are in uncharted territory," said a historian of the church. An old pope is leaving but staying within the walls of the Vatican, and a new one, younger and less known, will come before Easter.

In a week's conversation with faithful and believing Catholics, I detected something I've never quite heard before, and that is a deep, unshaken, even cheerful faith accompanied by a certain anxiety, even foreboding. I heard acceptance of Pope Benedict's decision coupled...